The transfer window is ending in Europe and it seems that the teams have opened their wallets. No more crisis, no more economic problems, no more unemployment, poverty nor difficulties; just show me the money!!!
Let's see some examples: Chelsea paid more than 50 million pounds for "Niño" Torres and is going to pay him a weekly salary of 200 million pounds!!! This is approximately U$S 322,000.
Just think what you can do with U$S 322.000 per week… Bye bye Ashdod, hello Caribbean islands…
Liverpool, which received these 50 million pounds, paid 35 million for Carroll from Newcastle, who the hell is Carroll??? I can understand Suarez for 26.5 million, but Carroll, have they gone mad???
In Spain, for example, and Spain economy is wonderful, Atletico Madrid paid 7 million for Elias Mendes from Corinthians; not even Forlan can save Atletico. Malaga paid 4.5 million for Buonanote, yes Buonanote.
Luckily football still is a great game and the 250 million Euros Real Madrid wasted last season were useless, they didn’t win anything, and if Mourinho continues this way they won’t win anything this season either.
In all this party there are several issues to point out. First and foremost it's immoral the money they are wasting in football. You can argue that they are laundering money, or that it has nothing to do with local economy, or that the money comes from abroad, the teams or the sponsors or whoever, that they earn more than what they spend (jajajaja, ask former Liverpool owners), that the life of a footballer is short and he must assure his future, etc. I'm really very worried about Torres; will he be able to assure his future with that salary? With the economy as it is and all the social problems in Europe and the world these numbers are immoral and they must put an end to it.
Secondly, we are losing football's romanticism. The shirt has no more value; the only thing that remains is supporters, who must spend every time more and more in tickets. For example, to watch Chelsea x Liverpool game at Stamford Bridge the cheapest ticket cost 185 pounds; to watch Barca x Atletico at Camp Nou the cheapest ticket was 102 Euro. I am aware that this was one of the ways to take out hooligans from stadiums, but not all "poor" people are hooligans.
What about the player? How many players are today with whom you can identify with any team? They all became mercenaries, and I understand them, they have to take advantage of the opportunities; but there is no limit and teams are responsible also; Real Madrid let Raul go.
Then there is the issue of competition. In Spain the league is between two teams, Barca and Real. As fan of Barca and principally as anti Real Madrid, I don't bother if Barca wins everything but it's not fun. Watching Barcelona's matches is a pleasure but there is no competition. It's true that in football in any given day the worst team can beat the best team and it was an enormous pleasure to see Osasuna beat Real Madrid 1 x 0 (and to watch Pandiani fight Ronaldo was even better) but in a long season, as all leagues are, only those with the best roster have chances to win and for this you need money.
Time has come to put an end to all this. First, salaries should be limited; earning half of what they earn today players can also assure their future and their family's future also. Then a limit has to be establish on transfers. In my opinion, something like the NBA must be done in Europe with salary limits and transfer limits. Youth players coming from own team youth divisions should be considered as half in salary limit or without limit at all so you promote youth departments. In this way you increase competition, you stop the come and go of players, giving more identification between players and the team.
I don’t want to talk here about what goes on in South America where teams cannot avoid fifteen years old players to leave and then they return at forty to party before retiring as Ronaldo and Ronaldinho. Even then they go for the money and do not return to their home team.
Football still is great, continues to have that magic that makes a small country as Uruguay come forth in the World Cup; let's defend the sport and its greatness and let it continue to be "90 minutes of the best sport in the world."
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